Veruca Salt
by Nightcrawlerlover
Summary: Oneshot. A young woman notices Veruca Salt and her father as they exit the factory. The woman then gets an idea to write a poem about Veruca, and does exactly that.


**Hey there! Here's a new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory oneshot I cooked up one day. It's about Veruca Salt, and it's based on the 2005 film starring Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. Plus, Julia Winter did a fabulous job portraying Veruca in the movie; she's also one of my favorite actresses as well. **

**Disclaimer: The geniuses at Warner Bros own the 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The late, great writer and storyteller Roald Dahl owns the novel **Charlie and the Chocolate Factory **(which the movie is based on). I own the fanfics, crossovers and stories that I cook up from time to time whenever I can.**

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Veruca Salt

It was February 1, 2005. 12-year-old Veruca Salt, along with her father, Rupert Salt, had come out of the chocolate factory that was owned by the mysterious chocolatier Willy Wonka. They were covered in what was three weeks of rotten garbage. It was in their hair and covered their clothes.

Veruca was seething mad. All she had wanted was a squirrel, and not just any squirrel, but a trained squirrel. She had imagined the possibilities that were limitless – see it do tricks as well as back-flips, front-flips, all kinds of precise leaps, and other kinds of things, like a gymnast in the Olympics that she had seen in her dreams once.

However, Mr. Wonka had denied her what she wanted, as her father tried to do at first when she demanded a squirrel.

"Veruca, dear, you have many marvelous pets," he had said. But she didn't care – not one bit.

So she then went down there and tried to grab a squirrel for herself. However, she was tackled to the ground by the 99 other squirrels and pinned there. Then the leader began tapping on her head with its knuckles, and found her to be a "bad nut". Then she was pulled and pushed over to the garbage chute. Finally, she fell right in and down the tube to a place where all the garbage was. Then, what seemed like three minutes later, she heard her father yelling, and soon he was right there beside her.

Veruca then pulled herself out of her thoughts as she looked up into the sky. All of a sudden, she saw it – a flying glass elevator. She knew instantly that it was an invention of Mr. Wonka's. Immediately, she turned to her father.

"Daddy, I want a flying glass elevator," she demanded, and then grinned at her father. Her smile was, of course, the one that was her "maybe if I'm pleasant and charming, I'll get what I want" smile. With her father, it was never, "Daddy, I need" or "Daddy, may I please". It was usually "Daddy, I want".

However, as soon as Rupert looked up at the sky and saw exactly what Veruca had seen, he knew this habit she had of being terribly demanding and getting her own way had gone too far, and for way too long as well. Plus, he knew that both he and his wife, Angina, had spoiled Veruca, and very terribly so, in fact. It was then that now, he believed, was a good time for things to change. The passing from an old era – Veruca being spoiled and bratty – to a new era, which consisted of changing Veruca so she could become a good person. He had heard, after all, that even the stereotypical "spoiled brat" could become a good kid with some discipline and limits, and learn how to bank and budget when it came to money as well. He had always secretly thought so himself.

Rupert mentally sighed as he looked down at his daughter. Having learned what he now believed to be a good parenting lesson because of the humiliating ordeal he had suffered along with his daughter in the chocolate factory, finally fed up with wasting his hard-earned money and his time on his daughter and her copious demands, and being chastised by the Oompa Loompas for spoiling her, he knew this was too much.

_Or rather, _he thought, _as the Americans often say, this is ‛the final straw that broke the camel's back'. Well, that new era of finally changing Veruca for the better begins right here and now. Well, here goes. _

With that, he made up his mind. Instead of cheerfully complying to her demands, as he had done so often in the past, he replied, in a serious tone of voice,  
"Veruca, the only thing you're getting today is a **bath**, and that's final."

As both father and daughter walked through the gates, in the crowd was a young woman with jet-black hair and green eyes watching them. She was a petite woman, as well as very nice personality-wise, as well as very humble. She stroked her chin in thought, intrigued by the father and the daughter. Then she smiled as inspiration suddenly struck her – like a bolt of lightning, but in a good way, of course.

_Veruca Salt,_ she thought, and then smiled. _Nice name. Gives me an idea for a poem..._

And with that, she reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her pencil and a small notebook that had a picture of the dollar sign on the cover. Then she opened the notebook and began to write.

_She was a spoiled girl,_  
_almost rotten to the core._  
_No matter how much stuff she had,_  
_she always screamed for more._

_When she went into the Nut Room in Willy Wonka's factory,_  
_her mind was all in a whirl._  
_She observed them at work as they were very talented._  
_She had her heart set on getting one of the squirrels._

_The seeds of greed became her downfall._  
_She was a little brute.  
Like her father after her,_  
_she fell down the garbage chute._

_Outside the factory, Veruca looked up and saw it._  
_Soon she turned to her father and it was no later_  
_that she then said these very words:_  
_"Daddy, I want a flying glass elevator."_

_Her father spoke, and he was stern,_  
_As he had learned a lesson at the factory during his stay._  
_"Veruca, this is final._  
_All you're getting is a bath today."_

_So learn a lesson from Veruca Salt._  
_Never be greedy in life along the way.  
Otherwise you'll be grumpy, lonely and selfish,_  
_and a painful lesson with you will always stay._

The young woman smiled as she looked down at her finished poem, and then turned and headed for home. For her, it had been quite a day, and that Veruca Salt girl had given her some ideas to use when she wanted to write a poem. Of that she was sure.

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**Well, I hope you liked this poem as much as I liked writing it. After all, not only is writing healthy for me, it also helps me get my thoughts organized, and it's a good habit to start early in life and stick with as well. :) Plus, to some people, writing may be a long, slow process. But to me, however, it's all been worth it, as well as very neat too. :) **

**~Nightcrawlerlover**


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